The last month and a half of our pregnancy was filled with many things that kept me spinning. Two separate leaks in the same bathroom had us living with a construction site as the leak and subsequent damage were fixed. There were workers in our house everyday, dictating the time I had to be there to let people in, decisions on all the bathroom finishes and babysitting the details left little time for me to feel prepped for baby. I kept making the statement, I think this boy is already obedient and plans to come when I feel ready, nested, and the bathroom is finished. On October 5th I spoke to my Granny and told her I finally felt ready, the bathroom was pretty much complete and I had the carpet cleaned that night to help me feel better about all the dry wall dust and dirty shoes we had lived with. I was ready to nest. I had been walking around having active contractions for two weeks on and off and had just visited my midwife the day before to get medicine for a bug I had caught. She checked in on baby and announced he was LLLLOOOOOWWWW 3CM and 80%; to me that said I had time to get well and do a little nesting.
At 11:03 PM I had a contraction that hit like a ton of bricks, 5 minutes later it's identical twin followed, 6 minutes later I was calling Barry who had been entertaining a good friend from out of town on our patio and we were calling the midwife. She had wanted a good heads up if I even thought about going into the hospital because she lives over 35 min away. She almost laughed when I told her I had been contracting for 20 min and thought I was in labor and told me to wait another 30 min and call her. Contractions came quicker and so did the shakes, by midnight we had kissed kids in their beds and were cruising down the street to have a baby. This sweet boy had heard I was ready and was eager to come meet us.
The rest of our labor was divinely orchestrated, for the first time in three tries I was finely able to have my midwife deliver. I checked in to find my midwife, Noel was able to reserve the one room I had always wanted with a large birthing tub. The nurse checked our progress at arrival finding I was 6-7CM and 90% and they began to monitor baby while the tub started to fill. Every ounce of anxiousness I had ever harbored over this labor left my mind and body completely that night. I prayed as we prepared to leave our house giving it all to God knowing he had already paved the perfect path for our journey.
This labor felt so different from my other two previous babies. Though I had a natural birth with Mallie Lynn and naturalish with Henry (till I hit 9cm and my blood pressure sky rocketed causing us to need an epidural), this labor had a whole different feel all together. Between each contraction I felt so aware of what was going on and completely in tune with what my body was doing. Most of my labor was done in the birthing tub, and with each contraction I pictured him moving down to meet us; with each little break my body relaxed completely in the warmth of the water. My back had gotten so bad with this pregnancy that even my midwife expressed concern as to how I would handle labor. God had me 100%, and to my complete astonishment I never once had any of the crippling pain I had felt even sitting or walking just the day before.
Around 2:00am the contractions moved from waves of intensity to one never ending rush of extreme pressure. I was helped out of the tub and rechecked by my midwife; at 9cm and complete effacement she gave me the choice of having my water broke and meeting him sooner than later. Knowing how my body tends to work I didn't hesitate. So, with water broken I braced myself for the ramping up of the freight train, and listened to my body as my midwife coached me to push through contractions. I decided to move between standing and an almost plea position to push, and it felt natural and productive. Intense and fast, joy filled adrenaline carried me through to the end. On hands and knees I pushed our new gift out into the world; a world that was waiting for him in great anticipation. I scooped him up with open arms and sat on my knees in complete shock and amazement that he had arrived. It takes a moment for our human minds to catch up with the miracle of childbirth. Though we just lived and felt an experience so intense nothing else can compare, one has to stop and gather themselves as thoughts orbit the atmosphere before our minds can meet back up with our new reality. The moment you meet your child for the first time your life is forever changed. Nothing can ever be the same as it once was, and no one would want it to be. Whether it is a path of natural birth, c-section, adoption, or surrogacy that bring you to your child, we all know that sensation, that moment when you begin to feel your heart grow at a rate even the Grinch would be surprised by.
As God grows a life he is also growing love, our capacity for it and the depth at which we feel it.
When I think of heaven I can not imagine all the glory and wonder our Father has planned for us; so it is with pregnancy. I was well aware of my intellectual limitations even though this was my third rodeo. Thoughts can not penetrate what glory awaits us on the other side of even our own uterus. I knew he was coming, and I knew he'd be grand, but at 2:27am on October 6th 2017, under a harvest moon I laid awake for hours soaking in all that I could of this good and perfect gift, Rutherford "Ford" Patrick Cooper.
Holding a fresh new life that God had entrusted to us, felt like floating on a cloud of bliss. Brand new baby Ford not even bathed yet, was so perfect it scared me. He barely let out a cry when he was born and the moment he laid against me he stopped and never made another peep. His skin was so clean and white, and his hair was everywhere! That wonderful strawberry blonde hair was such a sweet fluffy surprise!
You know you're handsome when the midwife and nurses can't stop talking about your good looks. Word spread about our adorable boy and by the time I was taken up to my room there were nurses coming in just to see if he was with us yet so they could sneak a peak at the baby they'd heard was so darn cute! :)
Being born at 2:27am means nobody but the newborn gets much sleep for 24 hours. By 10am we were able to introduce him to his big brother and sister; oh the joy that filled our hearts! Henry was immediately in love with the little guy he had spent so much time talking to in my belly. Mallie Lynn was excited as could be at the sight of him and was eager to hold and kiss on him.
All of a sudden Henry matured over night as he found himself placed in this role God had been preparing his heart for. He was gentle, protective, and full of adoration for his baby brother. Watching him that day felt like we had pressed fastfoward and watched his maturity grow in a high speed chase. Mallie Lynn, the perfect sister to two boys now seemed so big to me. I remember the same thing happening when I saw Henry and her together for the first time. Oh how it pulls at your heart strings to watch as the curtain is pulled back and your "baby" is revealed to you; suddenly she is taller, bigger and more grown up than she had been just moments before. When God creates a life we have no idea the wingspan it's effect has on humanity. For everyone who has waited on Ford's arrival, meeting him changed our world and level of love in an instant.
Our third child born into this world has created a little extra room in all of our hearts. I am once again blown away by the grandness of God's plans for our life, and am grateful that it far exceeds my expectations.
No comments:
Post a Comment